Dear Miss Breed

Superior Essays
As Helen Keller once said, “Keep your face to the sunshine and you will not see a shadow.” This can also mean that the most effective way of getting through a crisis is to have a positive outlook, and not to focus on the negatives. In Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl — a series of journal entries that Anne Frank wrote while she and her family were hiding from the Nazi regime — Anne attempts to have a positive attitude no matter what the circumstances. She fought for her own life and for her loved ones’ lives, and her mental strength is one reason why she made it as long as she did. If she hadn’t looked on the bright side, despite her bleak situation, she would've never had the faith or will to survive. Additionally, in Dear Miss Breed …show more content…
One of the best ways to respond to conflict is to maintain a positive attitude, because it causes people to be more appreciative of their surroundings, it keeps spirits up, and it helps people remain true to themselves no matter what situation they are in.
There is a commonly-used phrase that says, “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” This is exactly how Anne Frank felt when she had to leave her home and move into the Annex. Furthermore, it shows how the children in Dear Miss Breed felt when they were put into the internment camps. One of the children in Dear Miss Breed, Louise Ogawa, was more appreciative of her surroundings after she considered how much she had before she was brought to the camps. She wrote to Miss Clara Breed, “This camp is so far away from civilization that it makes me feel as if I was a convict who is not allowed to see anyone. I’d much rather sleep in the Santa Anita horse stables — this has made me realize how fortunate I was to be able to live in Santa Anita” (Oppenheim 412). When you are in a crisis — such as the Japanese internment
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For example, when Anne’s family first moved into the Annex, the house was dry and empty. So, when she found her postcard collections, she glued them up on the walls, which made her feel more at home. She says, “Up to now our bedroom, walls, was very bare. Thanks to father — who brought my entire postcard and movie-star collection here beforehand — and to a brush and a pot of glue, I was able to plaster the wall with pictures. It looks much more cheerful” (Frank 374). In addition, at the end of Dear Miss Breed, Breed states that, “In spite of all the difficulties, Louise’s positive and patriotic spirit rings true in these final words of her letter: ‘If American soldiers can endure hardships so can we!’” (Oppenheim 413). Moreover, this goes to show how faithful and true to her will Louise was. Jessica Cooper, the author of the article 10 Affirmations To Stay Positive When Life Is Not Going According To Plan, encourages readers that “Every little part of the journey is beautiful, no matter how precious or even how unfortunate” (Cooper).
The best and most effective way to get through a crisis is to stay positive, because when you are positive, you believe you can take on anything. Abraham Lincoln once declared that, “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have

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